Two Chinese-Australian news outlets say there has been an increase in businesses withdrawing advertisements from their papers due to pressure from the Chinese government.

The Vision China Times and The Epoch Times said months-long protests in Hong Kong have made companies with business in China either susceptible to direct influence from Chinese Communist Party authorities, or more wary of advertising in the independent papers due to fear of retaliation.

The Chinese government has been accused of applying pressure on businesses advertising with independent Chinese-Australian news outlets.Credit:AP

Vision China Times general manager Maree Ma said two businesses in recent months withdrew advertisements after they were approached by Chinese government authorities who asked that they do so.

It comes a month after the paper experienced a sudden drop in website traffic coming from mainland China alongside what Ms Ma suspected was an influx of Chinese troll comments.

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"We found that there was a huge number of comments on our articles coming from China - it was all really negative comments, and they sounded like trolls," Ms Ma said.

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"They were all pretty much the same - saying very similar things in different ways. It was all very official CCP rhetoric on Hong Kong and things like that. That probably lasted for about two weeks then one day it was all blocked."

Vision China Times lost more than 90 per cent of its mainland Chinese website traffic in one day in mid-August, a move that led the paper to believe the Chinese government had blacklisted its site.

At a Foreign Ministry press conference in Beijing at the time, the newspaper was described as "Falun Gong-backed media".

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Falun Gong is a spiritual exercise outlawed in China since the turn of the century for being an "evil cult". In the press conference the spokesman claimed it was an organisation that engages in smear campaigns.

Vision Times Media Corporation (Australia), which publishes Vision China Times in four Australian cities, responded in a statement: "We are an independent Chinese media company with no financial affiliation to any religious or political organisations".

Melbourne-based director of The Epoch Times John Xiao said he thought Chinese government pressure on Chinese-Australian media "is increasing".

"We have been receiving direct or indirect threats continuously, mostly in advertisements - that's where they think they can influence us in real terms," Mr Xiao said.

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Mr Xiao said he has had major Australian companies in the pharmaceutical and tourism sectors withdraw from advertisement agreements due to fears the news outlet was "too political".

Both the Vision China Times and The Epoch Times did not wish to share more company details over fears it would scare off future advertisers or invite retaliation from China.

"This is a threat to democracy, and to normal Australian businesses and people," Mr Xiao said. "It's going to escalate in one way or another."

Western businesses are increasingly required to choose between criticising China and accessing its massive consumer market.

A rift between the NBA and China was exposed after the basketball league distanced itself from Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey last week after he tweeted his support for protesters in Hong Kong.